Cupcakes
by PennyStarling17
Summary: In which, Molly and Irene pose for pictures, study for tests, and figure out that neither one of them is actually in love with Sherlock. (That doesn't mean that they aren't in love, though.) May be expanded later.


Irene scrunched up her nose as she looked at the price tag of the dress she had been eyeing. Three months of pay from her after school job wouldn't even put a dent in it.

Molly felt the hem of the dress. It was far over priced in her opinion, but Irene looked lovely in whatever she wore. "Would you like to try it on?" she asked. "I brought my camera." She lifted the heavy photojournalist equipment on the strap around her neck with a half smile.

Irene lit up. "I bet my grandmother would be able to make a dress like this if we took pictures." She snatched the dress off the rack and disappeared into the dressing room.

"It'd probably be more comfortable too!" she called over her shoulder.

Molly nodded, though Irene wouldn't be able to see her. "I wish I could sew like your grandma," she said. _I'd make you beautiful dresses everyday._

She shook the thought from her head and started deleting the useless pictures off her camera to make room for a photo shoot. It was a school camera, but she was the one in charge of the downloads, so who would know?

"I bet she'd be willing to teach you," Irene's voice was muffled by her shirt being tugged off. "I tried learning, but I can do is prick my fingers and get blood on the things I'm suppose to be creating. It's a bloody nightmare- no pun intended."

She opened the door and stepped out. "What do you think?"

Molly blinked rapidly and ducked behind her camera to hide her blush. The dress most definitely suited Irene, to a torturous level. The fitted top hugged her curves until it flared out at the waist. Simple in cut with a indigo that accented her dark hair, slightly messy from the school day.

"It... looks splendid on you," Molly managed.

Irene smiled and posed for Molly, left hand on her hip and right arm stretched out above her.

Getting the camera angles just right was a talent of Molly's, and she took her time snapping some great shots. The lighting was awful, but Irene could have been posing in complete darkness and the pictures would turn out. Molly tried not to let that distract her. It wasn't much use.

Once the photoshoot was finished, Irene had changed back into her normal clothes and offered to Molly, "I could take your picture if you'd like to try on something?"

"Oh, um," she didn't want to say that she had used up all the space on her memory card. "If you want me to. I don't know what I could possibly wear-"

"I mean, if you want to," Irene quickly backtracked, a blush staining her cheeks. "I could help you find something?" she offered hesitantly.

Molly nodded hurriedly. "I'd like that. I'm not usually one for these kind of things. You know me, I'd match an evening gown with flip flops." She laughed uncertainly, hoping that she wasn't rambling.

Irene just smiled. "Flip flops are much more comfortable than high heels," she pointed out as she dragged Molly back to the clothing section.

Molly allowed herself to be dragged. A pleasant feeling was blooming in her chest. She couldn't help but think of this as a date.

Irene rumaged through the clothes and finally held up several dressy options. "Which one do you like the best?"

Molly eyed each one critically, taking into account how each would fit her body type and disregarding the 'fun bits' like color or design. She pointed resolutely at the safest of the selection.

Irene nodded her agreement and handed it to her before putting back the others, snatching the camera out of Molly's hands, and pushing her towards the dressing rooms.

Molly fumbled with the dress hanger and the dressing room door and hoped that her hair wasn't caught in the neck strap of the camera. Once she was safely in the dressing room, she held the dress up to herself in the mirror and gulped. It was a lot more... more than she would ever wear on a normal basis.

Irene fiddled with the camera and deleted some of the pictures of herself to open up room on the flash card.

The door squeaked on its hinges to announce Molly's return. She grinned and did a half turn to show of the dress.

Irene beamed at her. "You look gorgeous!" she gushed, bringing the camera up to snap some pictures.

Molly lowered her chin to break the eye contact. She couldn't keep the smile off her face, though. She tried to copy some of Irene's earlier poses but felt rather silly.

Irene noticed the nerves on her friend's face and encouraged, "Perfect! Molly that's just perfect!"

"You think so?" Molly stopped. "Um, I think that's all the memory in the camera. I'll go change back." She scampered back to the changing stall with her clothes.

Irene nodded as she clicked through the pictures. "I think I got some good shots."

"I'll be the judge of that," Molly teased through the door. "I'm the photojournalist, after all."

"And the journalist can't decide for herself if the pictures work?" Irene asked in mock outrage.

"Are you writing a story on me?" Molly questioned, continuing the joke. "There's not much to say..." She stepped out of the dressing room with the dress over her arm.

"I can say that you found a beautiful dress that is far too overpriced and that it's all a conspiracy to steal our hard earned money by big businesses," Irene offered the camera to her as she took the dress.

"A decent angle," Molly admitted. The dress was dropped off on the return rack and the two paced their way to the exit. "How will you talk about yourself? No shameless self promotion in official school papers, I'm afraid. And not mentioning you when we have all these dazzling pictures would be a crime."

Irene pursed her lips. "Undercover investagating the conditions the clothes are kept in by trying them on?" She shrugged. "I'm not sure."

"We'll work on it," Molly decided. "God knows there are much worse things going in next issue. Not by the fault of any of the staff, of course." There had been a few issues with principle censorship in the past few editions. Bit annoying, that.

Irene snapped her fingers. "You could just write an article on censorship and how wrong it is when we should be allowed to say what we want in our school paper."

"That's not bad," Molly pondered it. "I'll suggest it to the Editorial Manager."

"You mean Jim?" Irene smirked. "Tell him it was my idea and he'll run it."

At Molly's questioning look, Irene explained, "He's addicted to my cooking."

"Ah, I see," Molly's mood was slightly dampened. Nearly everyone in school would do anything to get Irene's attention, whether it was positive or not. And Molly doubted that it was because of her cooking alone.

"But so is Seb," Irene continued, oblivious to Molly's thoughts. "And they just had a fight, so Jim'll want to get on my good side so I'll make something for him to give Seb to apologise for whatever he did."

"Right," Molly perked up when she remembered that Jim was not an immediate threat. He had a thing for Sebastian, which everyone but Sebastian knew was mutual. "What did you want to make? Could I help? I'm a fairly good chemist, you know."

Irene perked up at the suggestion. "We could make brownies or some cupcakes," she offered, pursing her lips. "You can pick, Seb likes them both."

Molly tapped her chin in thought. "Cupcakes," she decided at last. The pair arrived at Irene's door step in no time at all.

She unlocked and pushed open her door, calling out, "Grams, I home!"

When she didn't recieve a reply, she sighed. "Must be out," she mumbled and pulled Molly further inside.

They both dropped their school bags by the door. It wasn't the first time Molly had been inside Irene's house. They were best friends and all.

"Bake first, or study?" Molly asked. The question was a formality, they were already on their way to he kitchen.

"Baking first," Irene declared as she took out a mixing bowl. "We can study while the cupcakes are in the oven."

Molly agreed silently. She knew her way around enough to dig out a cookbook and start flipping through to find the cake section.

"What kind should we make?" Irene asked as she brought out the measuring cups and flour.

"I like angel food," Molly suggested, but backtracked quickly, "these are for Seb, though, so maybe not...?"

"We could make devil's food for Seb and angel food for us?" Irene suggested with a grin on her face.

"That's perfect!" Molly exclaimed, looking up from the recipe. "We can use the yolks from the angel food for the devil cake- very efficient."

The two set about making the cupcakes, Molly on angel food and Irene on devil's food.

Once the cupcakes were in the oven, the girls went to Irene's living room to study for their upcoming history test.

Molly made a disgruntled sound at a page in her textbook. Someone, thinking they were funny, had written snide comments all over the margins. Molly _needed_ those margins for _her_ notes.

Irene offered her a pad of post-it notes without looking up from her scribbling.

"Thanks...!" Molly said with surprise. Most assumed that Irene's strengths were only in her looks, but she was actually quite perceptive and quick-witted. Well. Perceptive of most things.

She hummed in acknowledgement and continued writing down her notes.

As the minutes went by, Molly found it harder to concentrate. The sofa was comfy and her books were boring. She'd much rather be studying science if she had to study _something_. Doodles started appearing on post it notes as she filled then with relevant information.

Irene glanced over at Molly and did a double at her drawings.

"Those are really good, Molly."

"Oh! These?" she hid them quickly. Some of them were on the verge of being hearts with initials in them. She casually rearranged them so that the better ones were on top. "Just scratches, really..."

"They're fantastic!" Irene slid closer to get a better look.

Molly blushed with Irene suddenly so close, leaning over her shoulder. "Thank you, but um," she stopped herself and changed her plan of action. "Would you like one? Not the ones on my notes, I'm afraid..."

"I'd love one!" Irene beamed, jumping up when the timer went off. "I'll get the cupcakes, you draw something."

"Okay," Molly said quietly, already planning a drawing out. She got out a dull pencil, sharp ones were no good for outlines. She's switch back to do the details. She laughed at herself for already putting so much effort into it.

A girl posing in a certain blue dress was out of her pencil before she could decide it was too obvious of a choice for a love-sick teenager to draw.

Irene came back into the living room. "We'll just let them cool off before icing them."

"Icing!" Molly stood up, her book and papers falling off her lap to the floor. "We still need to make that..." She trailed off, kneeling to the ground to reorganize her notes.

Irene picked up her newest drawing and blushed. "I didn't look _that_ pretty."

Molly froze. She could spout out some white lie about creative license. She could make a lot of excuses, but she didn't.

"I drew it as I saw you," she said. "No exaggerations."

Irene glanced away, blush becoming darker. She wasn't sure what to say to that.

"Um," said Molly. She stood up abruptly, leaving the rest of the papers strewn everywhere.

Irene looked at her.

"Do you..." Molly said, almost a whisper, "really not know how beautiful you are?" Somewhere in the sentence she managed to meet Irene's eyes.

"I-" she looked away from Molly.

"You're the prettiest girl I know," Molly laughed, but it fell flat. "And no picture could ever do you justice."

"Oh, I'm hardly pretty," Irene argued softly.

"Stop it," Molly clenched her fists. "It's not fair of you to say something like that. Even people who don't know you, don't know how smart you are or what your laugh sounds like think you're gorgeous. You turn heads wherever you go, and it's not fair. It's not fair what you do to me...!"

"Molly?" Irene reached out to her.

"Don't touch me," Molly snapped. "I don't need your pity." She flinched at her own words. "I'm sorry. I'll go-" she didn't bother finishing her sentence, choosing to retreat to the kitchen instead.

"I don't- Molly!" she caught the edge of her friend's sweater. "I don't understand."

A ragged sigh escaped her. If words couldn't reach her, Molly would explain it the best she could by other means.

She turned and pulled Irene into a tight hug. Normally their hugs were brief and simple. Molly wanted to banish any hints of platonic with this embrace. One hand cupped the back of Irene's neck, pulling he close, the other rested on the top of her hip. They were essentially the same height, so Molly only had to tip her chin a little to let he words run breathy over he ear.

"I've wanted to hold you like this since you first spoke to me," she whispered.

With hesitation clear in her movements, Irene wrapped her arms lightly around Molly and whispered back, "I'm still not sure I understand. If you wanted a hug, you know I'd gladly give you one."

Molly's heart wilted in her chest. "That's not what I meant," she said, trying not to let her disappointment show. She grasped Irene's shoulders and spun her so her back was to the wall, trapping her with a palm flat on the wall to either side of her face.

"Molly?" Irene looked extremly confused. "What-"

"Shh," Molly shushed her with closed eyes, leaning their foreheads together. "You must know what this is." She drew back and fixed her with a stare. "You've seen it in the hallways at school, haven't you?" She dipped her head to run her nose along Irene's jaw line. "When someone leaves kisses..." her lips ghosted over spots within reach on her neck. "here," kiss. "...here," kiss. "...and here."

Irene grasped Molly's sweater with shaking hands. "I don't-"

"If you don't like it," Molly breathed. "Tell me to stop."

"N-no," she breathed, leaning her head to the side. "I'm- it's... good."

Something swelled up to replace the fear she had felt earlier. Triumphant? Joy? Molly swallowed hard. ...love?

Whatever it was, she used it to apply her lips to Irene's skin in earnest. She added a touch of tongue, a hint of teeth here and there, all the while preparing for the inevitable moment that Irene would push her away, tell her that was enough.

But she didn't. Instead, Irene wrapped her arms around Molly's waist and pulled her closer before leaning forward and placing a feather light kiss on her lips.

Molly froze once again, completely lost at what to do now that Irene was reciprocating.

Irene pulled back as Molly stiffened and looked at her with worry in her eyes.

"Was that...?"

"That was perfectly alright," Molly assured her quickly. She grinned. "More than alright."

Irene lit up with a smile and pulled Molly in for another kiss.

Molly savored Irene's taste and tilted her head, wanting to feel her at every angle. Her fingers laced into her hair; there wasn't much space between them at all.

Irene giggled against Molly's lips and pulled away.

"What?" Molly asked, brushing Irene's cheek lightly with her thumb.

"It's just-" she giggled again and looked down. "I've had a crush on you for the longest time. I thought this," she gestured to the two of them, "would never happen because I thought you were into Sherlock."

"Honey," Molly looked her in the eye. "Everyone's into Sherlock. But not like this," she placed a brief kiss on the side of Irene's mouth. "This goes much farther than infatuation."

"Good. That's good." Irene pulled Molly in. "Let's stop talking."

"Hmm," Molly agreed against her lips. She tried to start slow, but soon they were both breathless and tangled in each other's hair.

Suddenly, Irene pulled away. "The cupcakes!" she cried, rushing to the kitchen. "They're going to get stale if we leave them out!"

Molly rested one hand to the wall, taking a moment to recollect herself before following Irene.

* * *

Many thanks to the amazing Outakurebecca, my beautiful co-authoress.


End file.
